The latest Republican priority: Legislate the latrine | Editorial

House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and other North Carolina lawmakers gathered for a special session to stop a new Charlotte ordinance that gives protections to transgender people to use the restroom of their gender identity. (AP Photo | Gerry Broome)

Bathrooms are back in the headlines, after North Carolina Republicans passed a law this week telling people where they can and cannot pee.

Believe it or not, this is a trend. Debates over GOP "bathroom bills" have broken out in several states and cities, particularly over the past year. Some violations carry big fines or even jail time.

It may seem an odd issue for the party of small government, until you understand what this is really about: your naughty bits. A middle-aged legislator's entitlement to decide who is a woman and who is a man.

Are Republicans good at this? You be the judge. Go to #WeJustNeedtoPee on Twitter, where transgender people posted selfies in the bathrooms that right-wing politicians have legally required them to use.

You'll see Michael Hughes, with a full beard and cowboy hat, standing stockily in the ladies' room while Brae Carnes, a slender blonde, applies red lipstick in front of urinals. Each is in the bathroom assigned based on the gender listed on their birth certificates.

It couldn't look more ridiculous. Yet this is the new GOP priority, folks, after its defeat on same-sex marriage.

To understand why, look at North Carolina. It all started when Charlotte passed an ordinance saying you can't discriminate against gay, bisexual or transgendered people -- a law other cities and states, including New Jersey, have had for years.

Hence their change in strategy. Much as they reframed the war on abortion rights with misleading bills like "The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," they are trying to recast the issue of LGBT equality with an appeal to bathroom panic.

This new North Carolina law overturns Charlotte's ordinance and forbids other cities from enacting a similar one, on the grounds that it will allow boys to use the girls bathroom and vice versa. The argument is that somebody born with male anatomy will walk into the ladies' room and assault or flash someone; that transgender people are a threat to women and children.

Please. In none of the states that already have LGBT anti-discrimination laws have any such incidents been reported. Lawmakers can't point to a single one. It's actually transgender people who are often subjected to violence, which is why they use the bathrooms where they feel most comfortable.

Is privacy an issue? Sure. But inflexible state mandates make it impossible for towns and schools to work out their own solutions, like a special curtain in a student locker room, or modified stalls in a bathroom. This is legislative overreach at its worst.

Time for Republicans to get back to work. Instead of policing the WC, how about fixing our roads and bridges?